Preparedness

To deter Chinese expansionism, the United States must deny China the ability to control the air and sea around the “first island chain”—Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan—and offset the PLA’s efforts to destabilize the region’s military balance.

The 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap details how climate change affects the Department of Defense's operations, how the department will adapt to and mitigate climate change threats, and how the department will coordinate with other entities addressing climate change. The Department of Defense first listed climate change as a threat to national security in its 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review.

President Obama gave this executive order on November 1, 2013. The order establishes the Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, outlines coordination between federal and state planning, and requests a review of policies related to protecting natural and environmental resources.

The Department of Homeland Security published this report in November, 2011. The preparedness system plan is part of Presidential Policy Directive 8 regarding national preparedness, and is "designed to guide domestic efforts of all levels of government, the private and nonprofit sectors and the public, the National Preparedness System includes guidance for planning, organization, equipment, training and exercises needed to build and maintain domestic capabilities in support of the National Preparedness Goal."

The U.S. Government signed this agreement with the World Health Organization on September 22, 2011, which outlines responsibilities for implementing the International Health Regulations, maintaining and improving health networks and alert systems.

Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, explores the lasting impact of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the anthrax attacks that followed on disaster preparedness and health policy in the United States. Garrett argues that "all our readiness response depends on well-funded police, well-funded fire departments, well-funded hospitals, well-funded public health infrastructures, and precisely the opposite is where we are going right now." Garrett cautions that U.S. preparedness for a major terrorist attack may be decreasing. "As budgets are being cut at the federal level, the state level, and the local level, we're actually less ready than we were in 2001," Garrett says.

Tim Starks and Seth Stern of Congressional Quarterly argue that after nearly a full decade into the war on terrorism the United States still lacks a legal framework for what is widely seen as the top national security threat of the modern era.

Eric Schwartz, Assistant Secretary of State For Population, Refugees and Migration, and Paul Stares, Senior Fellow For Conflict Prevention and Director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council On Foreign Relations and Co-Author Of CFR special Report, "Enhancing U.S. Preventive Action," discuss how the U.S. and the international community can respond more effectively to future crises.

Edward Alden writes that the Department of Homeland Security "has yet to become a whole that adds up to more than its parts," reviewing books by its first two secretaries, Tom Ridgeand Michael Chertoff.

CFR Experts Guide

The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.

New Council Special Reports

Campbell evaluates the implications of the Boko Haram insurgency and recommends that the United States support Nigerian efforts to address the drivers of Boko Haram, such as poverty and corruption, and to foster stronger ties with Nigerian civil society.

Koblentz argues that the United States should work with other nuclear-armed states to manage threats to nuclear stability in the near term and establish processes for multilateral arms control efforts over the longer term.

The authors argue that it is essential to begin working now to expand and establish rules and norms governing armed drones, thereby creating standards of behavior that other countries will be more likely to follow.

2014 Annual Report

Learn more about CFR’s mission and its work over the past year in the 2014 Annual Report. The Annual Report spotlights new initiatives, high-profile events, and authoritative scholarship from CFR experts, and includes a message from CFR President Richard N. Haass.Read and download »